NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Nashville is backing out of a deal to take American defender Andrew Gutman on a season-long loan from Scotland's Celtic.

Celtic said Thursday it had agreed to a 3+-year contract with the left back, a 22-year-old who was a senior at Indiana and won the Hermann Trophy as the top men's college soccer player last year. Celtic and Nashville then announced the loan.

Nashville is in the second-tier United Soccer League Championship this season but will join top-tier Major League Soccer in 2020. Gutman had been a member of the Chicago Fire Academy, and Chicago Fire general manager Nelson Rodriguez was quoted as saying Gutman rejected an offer to sign with the Fire.

Nashville says in a statement Saturday that as an "expansion member of MLS and in light of the fact that MLS does not support the transaction, Nashville will not be proceeding with the loan."

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